He laughed and his blue eyes crinkled round the edges. I moved one of my hands from his arse to his shoulders. There was so much of him I wanted to touch, all at once. I just didn’t have enough hands.
‘Let’s make it more than tonight,’ he said, nuzzling my neck. ‘Let’s make it for ever. We’ve messed this up enough. I’ve never loved anyone like this before, and I don’t want to live without you. I can move. You can move. Whatever it takes – but let’s be together. We can get married. Or shack up. Or have a Wiccan handfasting at Glastonbury. Whatever you want – but please, please say you’ll give it a go.’
He pushed himself up with his arms, and got down on one knee. He was sinking into the sand, and his man parts were blowing in the breeze, but it’s the thought that counts.
‘Will you marry me, Sally?’ he asked.
I was about to answer when I was suddenly blinded by a dazzling beam of light shining into my eyes. We both shielded our faces and looked out to the bay. All we could see was a giant ray of white cutting through the water and pinning us in a spotlight. Any minute now they’d let the hunting dogs loose and we’d have to run through a swamp with our legs chained together.
‘What the hell?’ muttered James, standing up to try and get a better view.
‘Mother!’ boomed Lucy’s voice through some kind of loudspeaker, ‘say “yes” and put your knickers on immediately!’
She moved the flashlight around for a second and waved at us. Harry was at the helm, and she was hoisting the light in one hand and the hailer in the other. The boat was chugging in to moor, engine humming.
‘Get dressed and board the boat in an orderly fashion!’ she barked, like a demented drill sergeant. ‘We planned to leave you here all night, but then Harry remembered the tide comes right in and you’d both drown. So hurry up! James, I can see your bottom!’
He jumped up and out of the reach of the flashlight, tying the skirt lengthways around his waist. I crawled round on my hands and knees, grabbing my discarded top and pulling it on as quickly as I could.
I stood up, and looked at James bursting out of my skirt. In the background, Lucy was shouting, ‘Left, right, left, right!’ and clapping her hands in time.
‘Let’s go and chuck her in,’ I whispered, reaching out and putting my arms round his waist, being careful not to dismantle his makeshift manhood protector.
‘I’ll happily tie her feet to the boat and drag her all the way back with you, Sal. But first – answer my question.’
I tied the sequined wrap round his neck, and trailed my hand over the contours of his chest. I never could resist a man in a nice scarf.
‘Yes, James. The answer’s yes.’
His face exploded into a smile and he crushed me to him, kissing me so hard I forgot we had an audience and slipped my hands under his skirt for a little feel.
‘Was that a yes?’ Lucy boomed at us from the boat.
I kept my arms round James’s neck and, behind his back, gave her a very special message. It involved two of my fingers and the letter between U and W.
PART FIVE
Turkey – two years later
Chapter 61
‘Happy birthday, Sal!’ rumbled Mike as he walked towards me. He was lugging a crate of beer with him, and stopping every five seconds to catch his breath. He dragged it the last few feet, and dumped it at the bottom of my sun lounger. I looked from it to him and smiled. I hadn’t seen Mike for two years, but some things never changed.
I stood up and hugged him. The belly was definitely blossoming, as was the rest of him.
‘Mike! How are you?’ I said. He’d sold his business last year and retired permanently to Turkey, buying a share of Harry’s bar.
‘Brilliant, love. I get paid to sit in a pub all day. Couldn’t be better. I’ve made a few changes, though; introduced a few cosmopolitan touches.’
‘Yeah? Like what? Are you doing food? Entertainment?’
‘No. Boddingtons. Anyway, enough of my jet-set lifestyle. Have you heard from our kids?’
‘Yes. They’re currently in Amsterdam, doing God knows what, and they’re getting a flight over in a couple of days. Simon felt so guilty about the fact that he’s got yet another young girlfriend on the go that he paid for the whole trip – Lucy played him to perfection…Ollie’s in the games room, you’ll see him later. He’s loving uni. Rick and Marcia are around somewhere, too – no Andrew this year, sadly. It’s a Graham instead. Nowhere near as fit.’
‘Sorry to hear that, love. I know you were always a fan. I saw Jenny and Ian on my way over to you, with little Clark Kent.’
‘He’s called Ethan,’ I replied, poking him in well-hidden ribs.
‘I know. But I always think of him as Superbaby. Cracking little lad, he is – and she’s expecting again now! Bloody wonderful. The gang’s all here again, eh?’
I nodded, and felt my eyes unexpectedly fill with tears.
‘The gang’s all here apart from one, Mike. I still miss her, and I know you do. How are you, really?’
‘I really am good, Sal. Not a day goes by I don’t wish she was here with me, but I’m building something new here. Max is well set up, and I couldn’t face staying in our house without her. Here, with Harry…well. He’s not as good at Pilates, but he does a mean fry-up. I’m moving on as best as I can. And, that, as you know, is—’
‘What Allie would have wanted!’ I finished for him, laughing. He was right. She would.
‘Anyway,’ said Mike. ‘Where is she then? Where’s Daisy?’
‘She’s just finishing her lunch,’ I said, waving my arms frantically at James to let him know Mike had arrived. He waved back, and headed in our direction.
‘Bloody hell,’ Mike said when the two of them got closer, ‘she’s a corker. Look at those blond curls. Just like Jake’s.’
Daisy was one now, beginning to say a few words and stumble round the furniture. We’d started trying for a baby almost straight away once James had relocated, thinking it might take a while because of the advanced age of my ovaries. In the end it had taken about an hour. She’d turned our whole lives upside down, and I couldn’t think of anything that had been more welcome.
James clapped Mike on the back in greeting, and handed Daisy over for him to hold. Mike cuddled her up into his arms, and she immediately gripped his beard with her podgy hands. She gazed up at him with very serious brown eyes, twining sticky fingers into his facial hair, fascinated by it.
‘Fuck,’ she said, and pulled, hard.
James and I both winced. Sadly, that had been her first word. With ‘shit’ as a close second.
Mike disentangled his beard and looked up, laughing.
‘Am I right in guessing that Lucy’s been doing some babysitting, then?’
Acknowledgements
I love holidays – I can spend hours fantasising over them, and planning them, and researching them. I even enjoy going on them. There’s just nothing quite like getting away from it all with friends and family and seeing a different part of the world, or a different side to life.
So writing a book based around a holiday was the perfect concept for me – and was inspired by a real life resort I visited with my husband and kids, where we soon realised that the same people did in fact come back year after year, just like they do in this book. Nothing very dramatic happened – just a lot of fun, and catching up, and sunbathing. But it was enough to spark this whole idea, and begin Sally’s story.
I, like Sally, had a lot of help along the way – it took several years for The Birthday that Changed Everything to see the light of day, and I have a few people to thank for that. My agent, Laura Longrigg of MBA, has always believed in me and worked tirelessly on my behalf. She also taught me the London girl secret of hiding your flats in your handbag and changing your shoes halfway through a party.
Kimberley Young and Charlotte Ledger at Harper Collins/HarperImpulse gave me the chance to join their team, and then gave me the chance to take it to the next level –
thank you so much for your faith in me. The super-talented and generally awesome Alexandra Allden has consistently come up with the most beautiful covers around – and we all know that people do, in fact, judge a book by its cover (including me!).
I’ve had a lot of personal and professional support from other authors, who are generally a wonderfully wacky bunch. So thanks to the HarperImpulse ladies and gents, in particular Jane Linfoot, and also to the ever-supportive Jane Costello – as good a friend as she is a writer. Milly Johnson not only took the time and effort to read this book for me, but also does some amazing dancing when she’s drunk at weddings – my thanks and love, Milly.
As I started writing this back in 2010 – when I was forty as well as Sally – a few people have helped shape it along the way. Celine Kelly rounded it out beautifully with her editorial advice, and several friends also read early versions – including Sandra Shennan, Caroline Storah, Rachael Tinniswood and Ann Potterton. Thanks for all your feedback, even if it was just ‘I nearly peed myself laughing at that bit’ (Sandra).
My friends in general are a wonderful gaggle – so big thanks to Pam Hoey, Louise Douglas, Helen Shaw, the Barbie Quiz Night Gang, Jane Murdoch, Vikki Everett, Paula Woosey, and my former colleagues at the Liverpool Echo, who never fail to come out dancing when I need them to. If I’ve forgotten anyone, I’m sorry – I blame my age.
Last but most definitely not least, my family – both my parents have passed away, so my in-laws, Terry and Norman Newton, and the rest of the Newton tribe, are especially appreciated. And to my husband, Dom, and my kids, Keir, Dan and Louisa, all the love in the world – what would holidays be without you lot??
About the Author
Debbie Johnson lives in Liverpool, where she spends her time writing, looking after a small tribe of children and animals, and not doing the housework. Her previous novels have included best-selling e-books Cold Feet at Christmas, Pippa’s Cornish Dream, and Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Jumper. She also writes fantasy and crime fiction, to keep her out of trouble.
You can find out more at www.debbiejohnsonauthor.com, and follow her on twitter @debbiemjohnson.
Also by Debbie Johnson
Cold Feet at Christmas
Pippa’s Cornish Dream
Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Jumper
About the Publisher
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HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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The Birthday That Changed Everything Page 31